


Delirium

by bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid



Series: Solitude is Creativity's Best Friend [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Delirium, Fever, Sick Klaus Hargreeves, Sickfic, the family rallies to help a sick klaus who is hallucinating because of his fever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23490529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid/pseuds/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid
Summary: In addition to answering prompts for this series, I also wanted to try to work on my WIPs, this fic was originally written for whumptober, so better late than never, I guess.Klaus is sick and delirious and can't tell what is real or not. Ben has seen him like this before and has never been able to do much to help. Luckily, this time Klaus has his family around to help him.
Series: Solitude is Creativity's Best Friend [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670578
Comments: 6
Kudos: 238





	Delirium

Ben crossed his arms and stood in Klaus’ path. He knew that Klaus could just walk right through him, but he also knew that his brother hated walking through ghosts and also respected Ben too much to do that to him.

“What are we arguing about again?” Klaus asked in confusion, looking at Ben’s stance.

“You want to go wandering the halls at 3 am and I am telling you that you need to get back into bed,” Ben responded, taking in his brother’s sweaty face and glassy eyes.

“I feel like...am I high…?” Klaus asked breezily, but Ben saw the flash of panic in his eyes. Ben knew that Klaus had worked hard to get sober and stay sober. He also knew that Klaus lived with the fear that he would relapse every minute of the day.

“No, you’re sick, you doofus,” Ben said, his voice affectionate.

“Sick?” Klaus asked, swaying slightly on his feet.

“Yes, and I can’t actually feel your temperature, but I’d say you definitely have a fever,” Ben said with a sigh. He knew it was useless to try to explain what was happening to Klaus. They’d had the same conversation 3 times already. Whenever Klaus’ temperature got too high he became delirious. He wouldn’t be able to keep track of where he was or what he was doing. He also wasn’t able to tell the dead and the living apart, which usually just confused him more.

“Hmm,” Klaus hummed and Ben was pretty sure his brother had lost track of the conversation again.

“Klaus, I need you to call for help. You have a bunch of siblings who are light sleepers, one of them is bound to hear you and come investigate.”

“Just need...w’ter,” Klaus slurred and now he was too out of it to even notice as he walked through Ben and into the hallway. Klaus stumbled and his shoulder bumped against the wall. Ben could only hope one of his living siblings heard it and came to the rescue. Ben was nervous about the kind of trouble Klaus might get himself into otherwise.

Klaus stumbled again and then braced his hand firmly against the wall, running it along the surface to steady himself.

A light flickered on down the hall and a soft voice called out, “Klaus?” Ben looked up in relief at Allison, who was rubbing sleep from her eyes as she came down the hallway towards him. “What’s going on, are you okay?”

“No, no, no, no,” Klaus moaned, looking at Allison in horror. “Not you too, I can’t lose you too.”

“Shit, shit,” Ben said, realizing what was happening. “Klaus, she’s real, she’s alive. You’re just confused because you are sick!” He shouted, but Klaus was too wrapped up in his own grief to hear him.

“Klaus, what-” Allison took a step forward, but abruptly cut off when Klaus flinched violently away from her and nearly fell over.

“No don’t, you can’t...you don’t want to,” Klaus muttered and Ben saw Allison slowly putting the pieces together.

“Hey Klaus, I’m not dead, I’m alive. You are home. We are both here living under the same roof as our siblings,” She tried, but Klaus had heard enough ghosts who were convinced they were still alive to not be swayed.

“No, no, sorry Ally,” He cried. Allison tried to move a little bit closer to him, but again he flinched away.

“Even if you do touch him, he’s just going to think it’s his new powers manifesting you,” Ben said out loud, needing to voice his opinion. He wasn’t sure how to pull Klaus out of this delusion and he felt utterly helpless.

“What’s going on?” A new voice signaled the entrance of another sibling as Vayna stepped out into the hallway. Klaus took one look at her and utterly broke down, sinking to the floor and curling up into a ball.

“No, no, no, Vani, not you, not you, why is this happening?”

“Klaus?!” Vayna called in alarm. She moved to go over to him, but Allison caught her arm.

“Don’t move, he thinks we’re dead. Everyone else, stay in your rooms out of sight.” Allison called when the rest of the doors started to open. Ben prayed that for once, his siblings would obey. It must’ve been Allison’s intense tone of voice because luckily they all listened to her.

“Why does he think we’re dead?” Vayna whispered over Klaus’ mantra of ‘no’s.

“I don't know, something's wrong with him. It's possible he's high, but he’s been doing so well recently and it doesn’t look like he was just out on the streets, so my money’s on him being sick with a fever. Claire once had a fever so high she thought the lights in the room would burn her. We had to keep everything pitch black until she recovered.”

Ben was grateful to Allison for figuring it out so soon and not just jumping to the easy conclusion of Klaus being high.

“So how do we convince him we aren’t ghosts?” Vayna asked, her eyes wide as she looked at Klaus.

“I don’t think we can. Now that he can materialize ghosts, even touching him won’t convince him that we are alive.”

“Get mom,” Diego called from inside his room. Ben had a crazy urge to kiss his brother. Of course, their mother, she was a robot and therefore couldn’t become a ghost. She might be the only hope they had of being able to get near Klaus and give him the help he needed.

“Of course, I’ll go explain everything, you stay here with him,” Vayna said and raced past Klaus.

Allison took a couple of steps closer, Klaus had his head buried and didn’t seem to notice. Still, a few feet away from him, she took a seat against the opposite wall.

“Klaus?” She said softly. Ben’s heart broke when their brother lifted up his tear-stained face. It was a shock to see their usually cheery brother so brokenhearted. Even on his worst days, Klaus was known for cracking jokes to help lighten the mood. But at the moment he seemed utterly broken. Not only was the poor man extremely sick, but now he thought his two sisters had died.

“H-how,” He stammered, looking Allison over. Ben presumed he was looking for a fatal injury. “How d-did it h-happen?” He managed to get out in between shaky sobs.

“It didn’t Klaus. I’m just as alive as you are,” Allison continued to try and reason with him.

“No, Allison, I’m sorry, but you’re not. I can see you, you’re dead,” He said, more tears rolling down his face.

“You can see me when I’m alive, too,” Allison rationalized, but Ben could tell that she knew it was no use. Klaus was staring off into the distance now with glazed eyes. His hair was soaked in sweat and his eyes were puffy from crying.

“Oh, Klaus, dear,” they all gave a sigh of relief when their mother appeared. Vayna wisely stayed back, not wanting to provoke Klaus any further.

“Mom?” Klaus said, squinting his eyes as if he couldn’t quite believe she was there.

“It’s me, darling, can I approach you?” Grace asked and Ben saw the glint of a needle in her hand. Klaus nodded, too far out of it to notice the needle.

Grace quickly approached Klaus, knelt next to him, and pulled him into an embrace. With her superhuman speed, she plunged the needle into Klaus’ neck and pressed the plunger. Klaus didn’t even seem to notice. For a few moments, nothing seemed to happen, and then Klaus suddenly went completely limp in Grace’s arms.

Allison slumped against the wall in relief and Diego, Luther, and Five all ran out of their rooms immediately. 

“What the hell just happened?” Five asked.

“Klaus is suffering from a fever of 103.2. I believe that, combined with his powers of seeing the dead caused him to be unable to differentiate between the living and the dead. I gave him a sedative to ensure that we would be able to care for his fever with causing him any further distress,” Grace said.

Diego gently took the unconscious Klaus from their mother and carried him back into his bedroom. His sheets were soaked in sweat, so Vayna quickly stripped them and put new ones on. Once that was done, Diego laid him down on the bed.

Ben hadn’t even realized that their mother had left the room until she bustled back in, rolling an I.V. stand and carrying a large bag. She pulled a cloth and a bowl out of her bag and handed them to Luther.

“Fill this with cold water, dip the cloth in it, and then place it on his forehead,” She said and Luther hurried off. “I’m going to set up an I.V. drip with fluids and some medicine to bring down his fever. He is going to be alright children,” Grace reassured as she set to work.

Even with their mother’s assurance, the siblings kept watch of Klaus all through the night, making sure a cool cloth was constantly on his forehead. None of them would ever admit how freaked out they’d been when Klaus had lost it, but it was obvious in all of their faces.

Ben had experienced these fever delusions before. This time he was glad that he was not going through them alone, but more importantly, he was glad that Klaus had his living siblings there to help him through them. 

When Klaus' fever finally broke and he woke up the next morning, he was greeted by the smiles and hugs of his entire family.

**Author's Note:**

> I am determined to stave off the boredom of isolation by writing as much fanfic as possible. So if you have requests or prompts please send them in to me!!!
> 
> Here's a link to a post on my tumblr of all of the fandoms I'm down to write a fic for  
> https://macspaperclips.tumblr.com/post/613069342535565312
> 
> "Solitude is creativity's best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls."  
> ~Naomi Judd


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